NYC PRIDE 2024
Role
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Creative Director
Period
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2024
Platform
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Environmental, Social Media, Digital, Video
Lift
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NYC Citywide PRIDE Initiative
The Rundown
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As creative director with NYC Pride 2024, I was skilled in understanding organizational and partner needs and translating key objectives into creative concepts rooted in the heritage of Pride. I breathed life throughout the experiential community journey (environmental, digital, video, and social). I brought hybrid experience in both art direction and copywriting, working across various tentpoles, mediums and platforms. Having brought live event experience from such outlets as Madison Square Garden, Major League Soccer and other premium event brands, I kept NYC Pride ahead of the latest innovations in the marketplace and integrated that knowledge into concepts that cut through the noise.
I oversaw high-value brand platforms and was therefore responsible for managing the full creative process - from conceptualization through execution. I thrived on being client-facing with C-suite executives such as MasterCard and utilized my storytelling skills to effectively communicate the team's work in a
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design presentation. I was responsible for creatively leading many of our top existing client partners in developing award-winning Pride platforms. These sponsorship driven platforms ultimately helped our clients accomplish their business objectives and stand-out creatively in the marketplace to establish NYC Pride as a leading voice in the LGBTQIA+ community. I directed a cohesive creative vision and development of design direction for promotional materials (environmental design, stage design, special events, brand collateral, and multiple social media pieces ) based on creative briefs, conversations and wide-ranging internal brand strategies. I possesses outstanding interpersonal skills, a relentless work ethic, and a spirit of collaboration that inspires those around them to create work that represents NYC Pride as a thoughtful and powerful force in queer equality.
The Team
ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN
STAGE: “Youth Pride 2024,” South Street Seaport, Pier 16-17, New York, NY
THEMATIC: “Reflect, Empower, Unite.”
CAMPAIGN: Client request to implement a Polaroid edge tretment to echo the notion of memories made over the 40 years since the founding of NYC PRIDE
CREATIVE: I suggested to pull in the current youth trend of space as it is a naturally-occurring, multi-coloured landscape that not only represents the colours of the PRIDE spectrum, but also dovetails with the latest youth trend of space exploration. Translated the Polaroid edge to a a “reflective” foil texture reminiscent of that used on shuttle material. Deep space crystalline and gem backdrop with cloud nebula across all event touchpoints.
STAGE: “Pridefest 2024,” Greenwich Village, New York, NY
THEMATIC: “Reflect, Empower, Unite.”
CAMPAIGN: Client request to implement a Polaroid edge tretment to echo the notion of memories made over the 40 years since the found of NYC PRIDE
CREATIVE: I recommended to echo my secondary, evergreen campaign messaging that “PRIDE is BOLD,” demonstrating that through the use of overlaping waves of multi-coloured ribbon that not only represents the colours of the PRIDE spectrum, gives the perception of depth and unison as opposed to the flat and generic designs of years prior.
SOCIALS
SOCIALS STORIES:
2024 GRAND MARSHALS
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New York City Pride Announces Baddie Brooks, DaShawn Usher, Eshe Ukwell, Michelle Visage, Miss Major, Robin Drake and Raquel Willis as Grand Marshals for The NYC Pride 2024 March.
Joining them is beloved celebrity Michelle Visage who has been an ally and supporter of the LGBTQ+ community. Michelle Visage expressed her excitement, stating, "To say I’m honored to be chosen as the Grand Marshal of NYC Pride is an understatement. This is a momentous occasion for me as a Jersey girl who moved to NYC when I was 17 to chase my dreams." The 2024 NYC Pride March, scheduled for June 30th, promises to be a joyous celebration of love, acceptance, and progress. LGBTQ+ individuals, allies, and supporters from around the world are invited to join in solidarity and celebration.
NYC PRIDE EVENT COLLATERAL
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The fundraising events of NYC Pride are the sapphic party, “Bliss Days,” and the party billed as the ultimate queer party, “Teaze.” For the first time in NYC Pride history, I developed brand marks for both parties that are intended to be modular, flexible and evergreen, with the design able to be updated past this 2024 season of NYC Pride. This is also the first time that the leaders at NYC Pride have been exposed to the notion of all events being brands under the NYC Pride campaign, and all assets created to the right are reflective of this activation. Watch this space as these are digital assets created for upcoming events, and as print environmental collateral comes to life in the real-time event space, this section and it’s title will be updated.
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EVENTBRITE
THE PUBLICATIONS
THE NEW YORK CITY PRIDE GUIDE
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“The 2024 NYC Pride Guide is here! Nationally-recognized as the largest Pride-focused magazine in the nation! Explore the hottest events, immerse yourself in all things Pride, and unlock exclusive access to the celebration of love, diversity, and community!”
A 102-page solo-designed/published periodical now living properly at the NYC Pride address at the end of this description, The NYC Pride Guide is the requisite guide to all things Pride in New York City. Behind the design, there were many creative challenges, from starting at zero for prior year’s content/dummy files, to the inability to have a proper photoshoot in studio to compose the cover art and interior shots of the Grand Marshals for 2024. With that consideration, I had to get granular with creating a dreamline, reflective, empowered environment composed of numerous enhanced and retouched headshots from the lowest to the highest quality. Many instances required a full press of not only colour-adjusting the Grand Marshals into the same colour space, but completely compositing body parts, missing hair, full bodies and creating Pride-themed multi-coloured attire for each individual GM using Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Firefly AI.
Beyond that, everything else was just a series of creative layout decisions in attempt to give a household name nod to publications such as Vogue, Bazaar and Vanity Fair, using serif fonts and juxtaposing scale and weight of the NYC Pride font Gotham. The full and direct issue is below:
https://issuu.com/nycpride/docs/nycp_2024_pride_guide_release_24_may_202
PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS
NYC PRIDE 2024 CREW SHIRTS
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A truly and obviously perennial asset, seasonal attire for the NYC Pride crew is designed and screen printed annually. With Pride in NYC always falling on the hottest day of the year it seems, one of the time-old complaints about the t-shirts is the constant heat and sweat that has been historically trapped around the paint that is used for spelling out each team designation and the sponsors on the back of the shirt. With that consideration in mind and also being incredibly heat-sensitive myself, I turned to my sports design experiences garnered from workign with leagues under Major League Soccer in collaboration with Adidas and created a well-tested screening solution—“vented” print areas utilizing line strokes of various weight to allow for ventilation whilst still legible at a distance. This solution also lead towards a more-stylized look and contemporary feel for NYC Pride representatives in the field–and ideally, actually cooler!
Group Leader
Community Group
Executive Board
NYC PRIDE 2024 VINTAGES
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I created custom labels from design to naming the vintage for The NYC Pride Three Bottle Wine Collection Ruby Slippers, Golden Girl & La Vie En Rosé. Three bottle collection of Ruby Slippers, Golden Girl & La Vie En Rosé Wines. Each wine collection purchased provides a $25 donation to NYC Pride.
